Living Legend: Lois Pryce

Smitten with life, UK adventuress Lois Pryce has always been on the move. At 13 years of age, an unchaperoned, week-long trip on bicycles through Cornwall’s back roads with friends introduced her to the possibilities of travel by design. And also to the idea of minimalist travel, taking shelter where you can find it, and bringing little more than bare essentials.

When Lois was 28 years old, she learned how to ride a motorbike. It wasn’t long thereafter that she decided to take her job and shove it, knowing that life in the corporate world, be it in a cubicle or corner office was not for her. Like many others before her, she found herself declaring “there must be more to life than this.”

Lois soon found herself pursuing a ribbon of roads and trails the length of the Americas. In a test of will and wit, she traveled solo and continues to do so to this day. London to Cape Town followed, along with all the challenges Africa had to offer such as crossing the Sahara, Congo, and Angola. Early lessons included embracing her vulnerability, enabling her to make more human connections, which according to Lois, are what makes your experiences “meaningful and real.” Along with leaving the extra clobber and gadgetry behind, she also dropped her ego, if indeed there was one to drop. After all, it isn’t about “taking on the world, it’s about being in it.”

For more questions and answers with Lois, check out her full interview with Tena Overacker in the Spring 2019 issue of Overland Journal. overlandjournal.com/spring-2019